Subset Games Forum

Well I simply don't know. There is always stuff to fix and optimize, and it's still kind of fun, so the mod might get further updates. Its definitely stable and playable now, but newer version might expand FTL further. I started to talk about custom made sectors with kartoFlane recently, so Captains Edition might actually get another component at some point (Sector Extension, SE_).

Meanwhile, another bunch of bugs:

1. "stay away from this, or you will be next! concentrate fire on..." event with pirate attacking settlement, allows to [SPOILER ALERT] help pirate by teleporting fire bomb to settlement, if we have necessary equipment[/SPOILER ALERT]. Hoever, while it's clear act of piracy, it doesn't have crew reaction dialogue - no one have moral problems with incinerating poor people's homes, and enforcing tribute on them, then sharing loot.

2. While condoning acts of piracy as Slug ship, there is small mistake at description text - it's "(mantis ship)", while it should be "(slug ship)". rest of description is OK.

3. engi scrap miner shit have misplaced weapon(s):
[click here to open image]
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While we are at piracy - some posts ago, you mentioned, that you have doubts about implementing it. After messing with it through few playthroughs, I must say that this idea was implemented in awesome way! It really adds "life" to game, crew reactions are interesting and well written... Plus, it adds some real fun alternatives, when playing as Mantis, Rocks, or Slugs I really, really like how some vanilla static texts/"awesome deal" events were extended/rewritten to include piracy options. You did a really good job here - everything seems natural, doesn't force or "encourage" piracy (at least, not when playing factions actively opposed to crime), but just fit where it should be possible.

BTW, there are some "deal" events, where piracy still isn't available choice. (by "deals", I mean random ships, that offer trading small amounts drones/fuel/missiles around). I can't find pattern - they're all the same type, but sometimes, piracy options just doesn't appear. Maybe few events got overlooked?
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Also, there is one certain special event, where piracy *should* be definitely possible, but isn't. I mean situation, where we defeat pirate, and saved ship turns out to be "dealer that usually trade only with rebels, but given circumstances, will do exception". God, I really hate this guy - especially, when I just ignored nice bribe, not knowing who I'm saving, just to see his pathetic, worthless "offer".

I know that you can't program 2 fights with ships at same beacon, but given fact that he was just banged by pirates when we saved his ass, terminating him should just become text-option (like with event, where saved ship turns out to be rebel scout - we have option to terminate and loot them without fight).

I'm not even sure, if it should be considered piracy - after all, he could be considered part of rebel supply chain, or traitor, at best. Anyway, adding option to loot him would be nice thing, for this particular, irritating event.

/Estel

Thanks for all your feedback once again. Most of the stuff mentioned has already been fixed in.

Estel wrote:BTW, there are some "deal" events, where piracy still isn't available choice. (by "deals", I mean random ships, that offer trading small amounts drones/fuel/missiles around).

Yeah I got some more of them covered in the next version. Repair stations even get an unique enemy type (indeed "outfitted with hundreds of repair drones", have fun!). Rewards will correspond to what is offered in the events. So if you have no scrap for fuel and are desperate, you can simply try to pillage the dealer.

Estel wrote:I can't find pattern - they're all the same type, but sometimes, piracy options just doesn't appear. Maybe few events got overlooked?

I simply wasn't sure if I want to go through with this all the way. It thought it would be kind of strange if there would be an option to commit some low to mid level warcrime at every single beacon (orbital bombardment on infected human mining colony anyone?). Like as CE is actively suggesting you to become some kind of space Basha Al-assad all the time... There are some people on youtube that suggest that this would actually be lore friendly (Feds suck!) so I guess it's not that much of an issue.

I also wasn't aware of how many events actually could have piracy options. I will have modified all of them at some point. In some events the textlists offer different scenarios, for example not all the text might imply that there is a station present. That makes things complicated cause I don't want to delete vanilla texts.

Estel wrote:I mean situation, where we defeat pirate, and saved ship turns out to be "dealer that usually trade only with rebels, but given circumstances, will do exception". God, I really hate this guy - especially, when I just ignored nice bribe, not knowing who I'm saving, just to see his pathetic, worthless "offer". [...] I'm not even sure, if it should be considered piracy - after all, he could be considered part of rebel supply chain, or traitor, at best. Anyway, adding option to loot him would be nice thing, for this particular, irritating event.

Ok approved.

Sleeper Service wrote:Thanks for all your feedback once again. Most of the stuff mentioned has already been fixed in.

That's definitely my favorite feedback about my feedback's reports

Sleeper Service wrote:So if you have no scrap for fuel and are desperate, you can simply try to pillage the dealer.
(...)
Ok approved.

Yes, yes, yes!

Sleeper Service wrote:I simply wasn't sure if I want to go through with this all the way. It thought it would be kind of strange if there would be an option to commit some low to mid level warcrime at every single beacon (orbital bombardment on infected human mining colony anyone?). Like as CE is actively suggesting you to become some kind of space Basha Al-assad all the time...

*chuckles* You know the PRISM & co... FTL developers will hate us for bringing NSA on their backs

Sleeper Service wrote:There are some people on youtube that suggest that this would actually be lore friendly (Feds suck!) so I guess it's not that much of an issue.

Half-serious - hey, lets add option to join rebels at their station, and blast rebel fleet at last stand Seriously though, more options at events - more RPG feeling, which (usually) means "'better". My personal dream is importance of events similar to "King of the Dragon Pass", where 90% of events have plot continuation, depending on your choices, (that can span for hundreds of turns, or get back at you after 20 game-time years...) but I understand,. that it would be quite hard to achieve, given FTL mechanics.

But I hope, at least, that factions stance toward you (how stations treat player) can be altered by piracy actions again that station (when victim flees or surrounding suggest, that our "deed" wasn't unnoticed by bystanders) - for sure not in next version, I know

Again, thanks for your awesome work!

/Estel

Estel wrote:Half-serious - hey, lets add option to join rebels at their station, and blast rebel fleet at last stand

Based on the vid, that actually could be a great stand alone total conversion mod. You pursue a single Federation vessel, the retrieval of the information which it has stolen is vital for the Rebel fleet...

Estel wrote:But I hope, at least, that factions stance toward you (how stations treat player) can be altered by piracy actions again that station (when victim flees or surrounding suggest, that our "deed" wasn't unnoticed by bystanders) - for sure not in next version, I know

Definitely not before FTL overdrive, right now that's far from possible.

Sector data modification and custom event creation for Sector Extension has begun. An quick preview on what is planned so far:

Civilian Coreworlds (neutral)
Much like civilian sectors with even more trade options and some unique quests. Looking for interesting ways to integrate combat here... Maybe creating a civilian law enforcement faction of some kind... Waypoint-Junta might also play a bigger role here. One quest might involve new ways to unlock ships.

Federation Controlled Sector (hostile)
Forward squadrons of the Rebels are in the process of driving the Federation out of these sectors. Events will be foreshadowing how the last stand feels, often involving you taking part in fleet battles. The Federation will get a stronger characterization here. You can re-establish contact with the command structure and take part in multiple beacon spanning operations, to help secure the retreat.

Hazard Sectors (nebula)
Far out fringe sectors, uninhabitable and dangerous. Little settlements and trade-posts present. Nebulas are especially stormy here, with the centre of the storm being a truly deadly place. The rest of the Sector features wide stretching asteroid belts. The Rebel fleet will be slowed down considerable by the hazards, but the player should only grind this sectors if he is well equipped and confident. Sometimes it might be better to get out of this sectors as fast as possible.

????? (???)
That one is done by someone else and I can't tell you about it now.

Hazard Sectors and ????? both sound very cool. I'm fairly sure these are all impossible, but you might get some event ideas for those from this old topic.

Brilliant addition! :3 it is pity that max number of sectors before the Last Stand are hardcoded. Are they?

Sector amount and map generation is indeed hard-coded.

Most of the sector will be unique, as I don't want to push too many of the original sectors out of the game. The new sectors will also remain more special this way.

I did some quick recolours for the civilian law enforcement ships and made a pirate version for a local gang faction as well. The Naisos colour scheme will act as the general civilian ship colour scheme.

Yay for Colonial Militia! :3

Whoa, that looks like some great ideas, and really good work on thinking/implementing it. I especially like Federation controlled sectors idea (although, marking them as hostile may be a little miss-leading).

I'm not sure if I like idea of new ways to unlock ships - although, piracy also could sound bad on paper, yet, it was nicely implemented in-game.

Meanwhile, a small bug report/idea:

1. When [SPOILER ALERT] one hit "betrayer on deck" event having slug crew-member, event-text clearly states, that there will be *no* rebel ship nor advance of rebel fleets, as we feed false flight logs to spy[/SPOILER ALERT]. Hoever, after clicking "continue" there is still a fight with rebel ship (I wasn't sure if rebel fleet advanced normally or 2x, worth checking, too).

Still, lack of rebel ship to loot would be a little drawback (unless you're on 1 hull ), so, considering dialogue about false flight logs, could we get "rewarded" by that blue event by standard random-amount slow down of rebel fleet (like when paying mercenary to slow them down)?

I know that this make blue-option reward for this event quite high (100% chance to not lose crew member and slowing down the fleet), but:
a) it is quite rare event, so no big problem with big reward for having telepaths on board
b) in case of lacking slug crewmember, possible bad effects are severe, too (losing crew member, fleet advancement and fight with intruder on board - all at once).

Summing it up, while I'm not the kind of person that likes to make things (in game ) too easy, it seems to fit well into this event, IMO.

2. Very minor glitch, and I don't know if it's fixable - when we meet random detachment of *federation* fleet at exit beacon, there is *no* graphic of federation ships (BTW, I love the idea of meeting Federation detachments from time to time, it is really climatic. Even despite they're at run and heavily damaged, it make you feel safer and not so "alone in space, everyone want to kill me"... For a short while.)
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1. Small suggestion - while I love idea of cruisers guarding every exit beacon is we're too late, I think that at late sectors - let's say 6 and 7 - it should be battleship guarding it, to reflect overall increase of rebel fleet's toughness.

2. Some non-fleet encounters with cruiser (at beacons) could also include battleships instead of cruisers - lets say, *very* rare encounter with battleship in normal beacons at rebel-controlled sectors (with even bigger loot rewards and/or longer slowing down of fleet?). AFAIK, we can encounter battleship this way *only* in sector 8 (or was it cruiser only, too and I mistaken it with encountering battleship at random rebel-controlled beacon at sector 8?)

/Estel